Back to the Future: Charity Screening

Earlier this year, Back to the Future celebrated its 25th anniversary of taking audiences through time. Topping the box-office for 11 weeks in 1985, the film spawned two back-to-back sequels, an animated series and even a theme park ride. Last night saw a charity screening to not only celebrate the anniversary and the release of the films on Blu-ray, but to raise awareness and money for people with Parkinson’s disease, their carers and their families. As readers will probably know, Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s while filming Spin City, and was forced to leave production of that television show.

Of course a very special guest was in attendance tonight: the biggest star of all three films, the time machine itself: the DeLorean. Long before hot tubs were used to traverse the confines of the space-time continuum, this very 1980s sports car was used to break free of linear bonds. They figured if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style? Besides, the stainless steel construction makes the flux dispersal…well, you get the idea. The special guest can be seen in the gallery below:

We reviewed Back to the Future quite recently (for the Popcorn Taxi screening), and concluded that the film “remains fresh and exciting after a quarter of a century largely thanks to its inherent simplicity”. Watching it again for about the third time in the last month (and indeed, may have seen this film in excess of 100 times since it came out in 1985, when I was the tender age of 6), nothing has happened to change that opinion. When the climactic scenes still remain fresh and armrest gripping after 25 years, you know you are on to a winning formula. Plus, with the exception of some neat effects at the very beginning and conclusion, it is all done with stylish set design and period simplicity.

This was an excellent night out, and certainly a fun way to wind down after the brilliant but exhausting marathon of films as part of the 14th Japanese Film Festival. It was also all for a good cause: with money raised going to Parkinson’s research. Possibly the only problem was the sheer number of people it attracted, with a sold-out session of well over 800 people willing to cosplay, air guitar and cheer on the adventures of Doc and Marty. Let’s hope a theatrical outing for the entire trilogy is due soon!